Castle Of Horror Podcast

Chris Pardal co-stars in the new film CORBIN NASH, as the partner of a rogue detective (Dean S. Jagger of  Game of Thrones) who is murdered and reborn as a demon-hunting vampire. Chris was a professional dancer before becoming an actor, and we talk acting and making it in the professional scene.

On Friday, April 13, 1984, the world saw the release of a movie Roger Ebert called "an immoral and reprehensible piece of trash"-- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. That's enough to get *us* interested in looking once more at this film, which features Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover.

This week's discussion is on the 1972 thriller FRENZY directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film, about a serial killer at large in London and an unlikable jerk framed for the murders, is daring, clever and sometimes very hard to watch. TRIGGER WARNING for those who are sensitive about violence against female victims.  Then we wrap it up with a conversation about Ready Player One-- the book, the movie, the success and the backlash. 

We discuss the strange, disturbing 1963 Toho horror film The Attack of the Mushroom People (AKA Matango), which is basically Gilligan's Island if the island were overcome by a deadly fungus.

Jason chats with Jamey Bradbury, author of The Wild Inside, a new horror/YA novel about a girl who works with racing dogs in Alaska and begins to develop horrific powers.

We discuss Guillermo del Toro's best-picture-award-winning The Shape of Water.

Queen of Blood is a 1966 color science fiction-horror film directed by Curtis Harrington, that stars John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper, and Judi Meredith. The film is based on the screenplay for the earlier Soviet feature film Mechte Navstrechu (A Dream Come True). A strange, green-skinned female is found alive aboard an alien wreck. As the rescuer ship heads back to Earth, the crew begin to die, drained of their blood. Featuring David Bowles, author of the Garza Twins novels!

RACHEL STAVIS is a screenwriter for film, television, and video games. She has published four horror novels under the name R. H. Stavis. She is also an exorcist, doing her work pro bono and without advertising her services. Her new book is Sister of Darkness: The Chronicles of a Modern Exorcist from Dey St/ William Morrow. As a secular exorcist, Rachel H. Stavis has worked with thousands of tormented people, from small children and Hollywood moguls to stay-at-home moms and politicians. The book is a unique look at demonology removed from religious dogma.

We wrap up our Carrie retrospective with a look at the most recent Carrie, the 2013 version starring Chloe Grace Moretz.

Connor Hoover wanted to be a wizard and wanted to time travel, but when that didn’t work out, Connor wrote about time traveling wizards instead. It’s actually pretty fun. Connor lives in Austin, Texas with a couple of entertaining kids, a couple of crazy but cute dogs, and a couple of everlasting tortoises. You can find out more about Connor at www.connorhoover.com .

MIDNIGHTERS (premiering Friday 3/2) is a layered, enigmatic thriller set in the Gothic backwoods of New England, where a young couple’s marriage faces the ultimate test after they cover up a terrible crime and find themselves entangled in a Hitchcockian web of deceit and madness. The movie is  the theatrical debut of director Julius Ramsay, who is known for his work on AMC's "The Walking Dead” and Syfy’s upcoming Superman prequel “Krypton.” The film was written by his brother Alston Ramsay, who was inspired to write MIDNIGHTERS after seeing a disturbing real life news story in the LA Times about a woman who drove home someone she struck with her car and kept him in her garage.   Midnighters premieres Friday 3/2 on VOD and in theaters in LA, New York and elsewhere.

We talk about the 2002 Carrie starring MAY's Angela Bettis, in a version of Carrie that also acts as a strange pilot for a TV series that never was.

We return to the Carrie Retrospective with the 1999 film THE RAGE: CARRIE 2, which has some interesting things to say about telekinesis and consent.

Jason chats with TIM HUNTER (Riverdale, Mad Men, The River's Edge), director of Looking Glass, a new thriller starring Academy Award Winner Nicholas Cage, Robin Tunney and Marc Blucas about a man who discovers that the motel he just bought contains a strange hidden hallway that lets him spy on the hotel's guests, leading to a story of obsession, suspicion and murder. The movie debuts February 16.

In this encore episode we discuss CARRIE, a story of a meek, bullied girl with the power to exact revenge on her entire 1970s high school.

ENCORE PRESENTATION: We celebrate the holiday season with one of the first slasher films, the cult favorite BLACK CHRISTMAS, AKA SILENT NIGHT, EVIL NIGHT and STRANGER IN THE HOUSE.

Jason chats with Johnathon Schaech, who plays a wily, muscular zombie in the new re-imagining of George Romero's classic "Day of the Dead. We talk "Day of the Dead: Bloodline."

We take a look at the spooky, moving 1970 musical version of A Christmas Carol, SCROOGE starring Albert Finney and Alec Guinness. 

Jason chats with Greg Sestero, whose memoir of the making of the cult drama The Room has been turned into a new film with James Franco. 

Tony and Jason chat with Gene Pao, VP Digital at Shout! Factory about what makes the premiere brand of cult film and TV tick. We talk about the amazing brand that is "VHS Vault," and the surprising resilience of MST3K, no matter the medium.